Message from Civilitude President Nhat Ho

We are now halfway through 2021 here at Civilitude. I am 7 months into my tenure as President, and it is safe to say that the present picture and future outlook of the organization is bright.

Last year, in 2020, we had a challenging couple of months at the beginning of the pandemic. Like a lot of organizations, we scrambled a bit to adjust to the new reality. In late February of 2020, we were fresh off of being recognized as one of the fastest growing businesses in Central Texas by the Austin Business Journal. We were a couple months into a year that was supposed to be a growth year. We were a business that needed to do business in person, at least that’s what we thought.

Fast forward to July 2021, and I can tell you that we learned a lot about ourselves. In 2020, we made adjustments on the fly. Our major growth plan turned into a major investment plan. Many companies just stopped spending. We spent more because we knew the potential of Civilitude.

Over the last year we…

• have doubled the size of our team.
• are on track for a record revenue year in 2021.
• remodeled our office multiple times to fit our growth.
• broke ground on the first Affordability Unlocked project in town (those 17 units will be completed this summer)
• were recognized as the Favorite Company Culture by the Austin Young Chamber.
• completely changed the way we get work done.

I want to focus on the last bullet for the rest of this message because it is very personal to me. I learned how to work differently in 2020. I used to never slow down. I was always on the go, always in another meeting and rarely found the time to sit with my team. During the pandemic, I worked completely from home while caring for my two children. My wife is a nurse and her job is essential. Mine is one that could make adjustments.

Our entire team learned with me that we can be different. We can work remotely. We can be more flexible. We must take time to plan our days, weeks, months and years. We cannot just move really fast and figure it out as we go.

We are taking everything we have learned and using it as we continue to create new iterations of Civilitude. Most of our folks are now back in the office; not because we required it, but because that’s what people have chosen. We don’t have an official policy on this. People can work from wherever they need to. We trust our people. They will know when they need to be in person.
 
 
 
The truth is 95% of what we do can be done remotely. We do need time in person to connect with each other. Connections are important and something we will always make a priority, but the future of work at Civilitude is fluid. It is flexible. It is open to ideas, possibilities and adjustments. We want to do our best work and have fun doing it. We want to be profitable. We want to make an impact on our city.

The second half of 2021 is our chance to take Civilitude to a level many of us have only dreamed of. We have the team in place to do it. I am so grateful to be in the driver’s seat of this company with so many co-drivers. Here’s to a great second half!